Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et Decorum Est”

                Usually I believe that the poem an author creates always has a parallel meaning between the lines, or the non-literal translation, but “Dulce et Decorum Est”, illustrating a painful death in World War I is a powerful enough image in itself, that it need not parallel something else. It only needs to vividly and poetically express its message with poetical verse a tragedy of sorts. The title translating roughly to “It is sweet and proper” leads us not to expect this horribly described death and sets up a bit of irony in the story. At last the poem makes it point rather clearly “The old Lie: (It is sweet and proper/ to die for one’s country)”(line 27-28). The author of this poem illustrates to the reader by using words with a hopeless and macabre connotation. “incurable sores”, “white eyes writhing in his face”, and “from froth-corrupted lungs”. All these words set up a specific tone that the author wishes to portray.